Modernity in Black and White: Art and Image, Race and Identity in Brazil, 1890–1945 (Afro-Latin America)

Modernity in Black and White provides a groundbreaking account of modern art and modernism in Brazil. Departing from previous accounts, mostly restricted to the elite arenas of literature, fine art and architecture, the book situates cultural debates within the wider currents of Brazilian life. From the rise of the first favelas, in the 1890s and 1900s, to the creation of samba and modern carnival, over the 1910s and 1920s, and tracking the expansion of mass media and graphic design, into the 1930s and 1940s, it foregrounds aspects of urban popular culture that have been systematically overlooked. Against this backdrop, Cardoso provides a radical re-reading of Antropofagia and other modernist currents, locating them within a broader field of cultural modernization. Combining extensive research with close readings of a range of visual cultural production, the volume brings to light a vast archive of art and images, all but unknown outside Brazil. "The book provides a deeper understanding of modern art in the Brazilian context, moving the focus away from the self-declared avant-gardes and towards a broad panorama of modernizing tendencies throughout the period, 1890 to 1945. The backdrop of sertão, favelas, carnival and samba - often left out of accounts that restrict readings of modernism to erudite arenas like literature, fine art or architecture - are foregrounded in an attempt to situate artistic discourses within the social and political struggles of the period. Race, class and ideological conflict are given priority as tools for deconstructing complex debates, too often taken at face value or misread as merely reflexive of European phenomena. The anthropophagic movement (Antropofagia) rates special attention in teasing out the meanings of primitivism in the Brazilian context. The book examines a range of visual cultural materials including paintings, periodicals, graphics and photographs, revealing a hidden archive that calls into question the very essence of how modernism is usually perceived in Brazil. The enduring presence of archaism and violence behind an appearance of modernity reveals itself to be not an anomaly, but rather a product of the tensions inherent to the enduring oligarchical structures of Brazilian culture and society"-- Provided by publisher Introduction. Ambiguous modernities and alternate modernisms -- Heart of darkness in the bosom of the modern metropolis : favelas, race and barbarity -- A pagan festival for the up to date : art, bohemianism and carnival -- The printing of modern life : a new art for a new century -- The cosmopolitan savage : modernism, primitivism and the anthropophagic descent -- The face of the land : depicting 'real' Brazilians under Vargas -- Epilogue. Images of a culture at war with itself Rafael Cardoso provides a groundbreaking account of artistic modernization in Brazil in his first single-authored English-language publication. He puts popular culture and racial tensions at the center, situating cultural debates within the broader currents of Brazilian life, such as the rise of favelas, carnival, mass media, and dictatorship. In His First Single-authored English-language Work, Rafael Cardoso Offers A Re-evaluation Of Modern Art And Modernism In Brazil.